The present invention relates to cylindrical locks. Currently there are many lever operated cylindrical locksets in the market place. These essentially include a lever handle that is cast and fitted onto the locking mechanism. The potential for a manufacturer to add new designs to their range, or to offer custom designs for small production quantities, without requiring expensive tooling each time has been a long felt need in the industry.
There are on the market conversion kits for changing knob-handled cylindrical locksets, or for changing knob handles between different manufactures locksets, as typified by those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,876,783 and 5,481,890 but they require the replacement of many parts, and are limited to the specific change made.
It can be appreciated that if the industry is provided with a system whereby the handles can be readily and economically changed without effecting existing cylindrical lock mechanisms and associated latch means, the lock manufacturer and user will have the ability to introduce a wide variety of lock handles with pin tumbler assemblies. Furthermore if the lock assembly is designed so that the only critical feature of the handle is that it be manufactured with an opening at its end that will fit a correspondingly shaped portion of the lock adaptor assembly the handle can be formed into whatever shape desired thus giving the lock manufacturer and user the ability to truly have xe2x80x9cdecoratorxe2x80x9d handles of whatever size and shape desired along with whatever information or logo they desire to place thereon.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a novel adaptor assembly that will fit between the cylindrical lock mechanism and the handle. The adaptor assembly provides for conventional keyed cylinders of all types to be inserted prior to assembly of the handle and final installation onto the lockset mechanism. The outer face of the adaptor has a raised oval step to which the handle is fixed and secured to the adaptor with bolts from the side opposite the raised oval step. Any of a wide variety of handles can be employed which handles can be cut into whatever shape desired so long as there is an oval opening at one end that fits over the oval step of the adaptor and is secured relative thereto. However, while an oval step and opening has been described the invention is not limited to this configuration. It is only necessary that the step portion and opening have mating configurations. The adaptor assembly allows for any standard type of pin tumbler including interchangeable cores to be incorporated into the lockset. The adaptor can be applied to existing cylindrical lock mechanisms. The adaptor includes an oval shaped portion that receives any handle that defines an opening having the same shape and this permits the adaptor to accommodate any shaped handle having a corresponding opening with the obvious advantage that the handle can be readily changed, a feature which makes for ready acceptance in the industry.
Other features of applicants novel invention will be seen from the accompanying drawing in which the FIG. 1 shows an exploded view of one half of a door locking assembly along with the examples of various types of handles that can be used. The variety of handles is essentially limitless and those shown are only intended to be representative.